Thankful for the Family

As thankful for blood relatives as we should be that is not the kind of family we have in view here. Today, we mean in the broadest possible consideration all our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. In a more narrow consideration we mean our local church family.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you...” This kind of statement begs the question why was Paul so thankful for the church in Colossi?

Faith v. 4, 12-14

Saving Faith v. 4

Producing Faith

Fruit

Inheritance v. 12

Ephesians 1:11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,”

Colossians 3:24 “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Hebrews 9:15 “Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

From these passages we see that this inheritance is an eternal reward. So to put it in a word our inheritance is heaven.

Deliverance v. 13

From the domain of darkness

Scripture is full of metaphors for what it is like to be outside of Christ.

Darkness, blindness, death

Transferred to the kingdom of His Son

Which is illustrated in Scripture as light and life.

The kingdom of His Son is both spiritual and physical.

Redemption v. 14

From His Son

Paul is grateful that once again in the Colossian believers God has taken something evil and vile and made it righteous. That is what redemption is all about taking something useless and making it useful. Paul is thankful for the redemption of the Colossians because he has seen that same redemption in himself.

Forgiveness v. 14

The basis for that redemption is of course the forgiveness of sins.

There is a deep, heart level recognition that forgiveness is really what we long for.

We know that forgiveness is what we need and that by faith it is ours.

There are however so many people who believe that Christ’s offer of salvation is simply too good to be true. Because they have been beaten down by a sinful world full of sinful people and to be honest given in to the sinfulness of their own hearts a certain level of cynicism has colored their perception of God. This often leads to agnosticism or atheism, but even these deep down long for the forgiveness of God.

And so much more

Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,”

Don’t forget that everything you need for a life of godliness is available to you in Christ.

Shared Faith

What does Paul call this group of believers in v. 2? - His brothers

This kind of familial language is the best that human speech has to offer to communicate the connection between believers. We are a family.

We share a heavenly Father

Christ is our older brother - Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

We are indwelt by the same Spirit.

The most important thing about you, that is your faith in Christ, is what you hold in common with your church family. So, Paul is correct to express and feel gratitude for them.

Love v. 4b

“for all the saints”

Yes, even the:

Unlovely ones.

Annoying ones

Dirty ones

Ignorant ones

Ones with different politics

It is this kind of love that can easily show the spiritual health of a local church.

Example: Epaphras

Visits Paul in prison

From or at least living in Colossae (Colossians 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” )

Fellow servant

Faithful minister

Hope v. 5

Heavenly

They, with Paul, have a glorious future in heaven.

This is because of their union with Christ which frees them from the corruption of sin.

Guaranteed

The Greek word rendered hope in this verse refers to a confident expectation not wishful thinking.

Paul was thankful that they shared this same hope.

Fruit v. 5b-8, 10

Gospel Based

Moving from hope to fruit Paul reminds them that they have already heard this message of hope in the gospel.

The result of this is more and more people bearing fruit.

In Scripture fruit is another metaphor for sanctification. The process by which we become more and more like Christ. It is something that grows in us and can be of benefit to others.

Increasing

Paul is thankful that this fruit is growing in the Colossian believers.

Since the day they heard the gospel.

Epraphras is another example of fruit bearing.

Walk Worthy

While talking about wisdom and understanding Paul also includes that this will result in walking worthy of the Lord.

Which in turn leads to “bearing fruit in every good work”

Wisdom v. 9-11

The Knowledge of God

Don’t under estimate the necessity of increasing your knowledge of God. Yes, I am talking about theology and doctrine.

It is a plain and simple truth that you cannot have a close relationship with God without knowing about Him.

A lot of people need to stop pretending.

Understanding

Spiritual Wisdom

Knowing and being in the will of God produces endurance, patience, strength and joy.

No wonder as a part of Paul’s prayer of gratitude for them he also prays that they would increase in this area.

Application

We should be grateful for those with whom we share the same faith. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ and it is often their faith that God uses to grow our faith. It is them that we depend upon for prayers and strength in times of need. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but I firmly believe that it takes a church family to faithfully walk with Christ. May we learn from and edify the faith of those around us.

We should be grateful for the love of Christ displayed in the Church of Christ. When it is truly Christ’s love on display then it is always a love extended to all the saints, even the ones with whom we disagree. Through out the election I heard so many politicians declare that as American we hold more in common than we realize and that we agree on more than we disagree. On a national level I do not really believe that is true. If we can’t agree on the differences between a boy or a girl or whether or not its okay to murder a baby I am not sure that we really hold that much in common. However, within the true Church of Christ, I do believe that is true and it should foster a love for all the saints because what unites us is far greater than what divides us. I am not saying that we give up important matters of doctrine, but we should acknowledge our brothers and sisters in Christ as just that.

We should be grateful for the hope we share. When we are around people of great faith our faith is strengthened and when we are around loving people we are encouraged to be more loving. So logically what happens when we are around hopeful people? I encourage you to surround yourself with people whose hope is in the Lord. The heavenly, guaranteed hope of Christ unites us, strengthens us and gives us purpose.

We should be grateful for the spiritual fruit produced by our church family. Remember that at some point you were that fruit. Someone shared the gospel with you and the Holy Spirit used that to convict you of sin, draw you to Christ and regenerate you. We should do anything we can to help fruit grow within our family.

We should be grateful for the wisdom displayed in our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need it with great frequency. We cannot always see things clearly and we require the wisdom granted to others by God to know what to do. We need their knowledge of God, their understanding of the world and their overall spiritual wisdom. On occasion that is also how God uses us, to be the one who provides wisdom.